Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Cliff Harris is an excellent corner and unbelievable punt returner but apparently has just terrible judgment when getting in vehicles:

Harris was suspended by the No. 7 Ducks just hours after he was cited for driving on a suspended license, driving without insurance and failure to wear a seatbelt.

Harris, who was also cited by state police in June for driving 118 mph on Interstate 5, is not allowed to participate in any football-related activities for now.

Harris faces fines in excess of $952. The car he was driving, which police say belongs to a relative, was impounded.

Brilliant. As you may or may not remember, Harris was suspended for Oregon's season opener against LSU after that whole "wwwhheeee 118 mph" thing, which was stupid enough in its own right but was made even stupider by the fact that he was driving a rental car that was "borrowed" from an athletic department employee. Committing dangerous traffic violations while in the middle of an eyebrow-raising NCAA violation? Awesome.

The only positive (kind of) for Oregon is that Harris' first suspension made Anthony Gildon and Terrence Mitchell the starting corners, so Harris has been something other than an every-down player. He's also been only a part-time punt returner this year, which seems odd at first but makes more sense when you see LaMichael James out there running circles around people.

Still, he's been getting a majority of the returns of late and is just one more absurdly terrifying threat on a team full of them. With Stanford coming up two weeks and a shot at the national title still out there, having arguably the best return man in the country (let alone a returning All-American you can throw out there as your third corner) wouldn't be a bad thing. What Chip Kelly publicly calls "very disappointing" is probably called something else behind his office doors.